L'Abricotier, Duja Orange

 I wasn't intentionally being greedy, just sticking to plan and went to L'Abricotier for the new cake they should have gotten before the last Viron cake. It's only another 8 km after 5 km to Ginza, so less of a daily run than the previous day so I was expecting to come up empty and have to go on to Yu Sasage, which I assume would be as far, but actually there were two new cakes to choose from. For today, I skipped the raspberry chocolate cake and took the Duja Orange. This shop is big on pairing nutty with fruit, so even though orange is a difficult fruit, I was interested in how it would pair with Gianduja (chocolate and hazelnut). Once again, I got lost on the trains, so it took twice as long as it should have to get back. I liked this cake, which I can say is definitely excellent. Mainly, I like the Gianduja cut with enough other stuff not to be too strong, though maybe orange isn't the perfect fruit.

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Addiction over Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron

I'll be busy next weekend and so these are both seasonal, so I wanted to get in another round before either disappears. This is a second-round cake-off (occurring today!) requiring only a short run to Ginza Mitsukoshi. One cake is yesterday's winner, Matcha Marron from Jean-Paul Hévin. The last time, I ate it with green tea, whereas this time was Indian tea (grown in China). That might be a little too strong for it, as it's pretty subtle (unusual for chocolate cake, but the amount of chocolate is pretty minimal), whereas fruity cake definitely suits a tropical fruit cake, so Addiction is two for two, taking advantage of its more extreme taste. 

Cake-off: Jean-Paul Hévin's Matcha Marron over Viron's Baba

Only yesterday, I did a first-round cake-off with two cakes new this month. As I mentioned previously, this took a half marathon amount of running. This is because I first went to Éclat des Jours to give them some verrine glasses and get Croissant, which is fluffier than my ideal but still excellent. I ended up going to Shibuya, since that's the only place to get Viron's Baba. On the way there, at about the three hour mark (I'm slow and this was a long slow run), I stopped at the Caffe Pascucci and got a Bombolone Pistatcchio, which was a poor choice, as bombolone are apparently bread rather than pastry, relatively hardy bread. They only had two Baba's at Viron, which was a little ominous, but okay. As a match, I went to Jean-Paul Hévin and got the Matcha Marron. The Baba is great as a classic and the Matcha Marron is great as a JPH-type cake with a new combination of tastes. The previous sample, the matcha stood out, but this time my attention was drawn more to the chestnut and chocolate. In the end, I decided that the more complex taste of the JPH cake suited me better, but I'm not done with the Baba.  

As an addendum, I'll note that the cake for the take-off win was pre-bought (though not intentionally) as a second try on an excellent JPH cake that appeared again in the line-up, Longchamp Feuilleté, which I've decided might be great, so I'm belatedly adding it to the greats list, though I won't be surprised if they change the line-up before it get's a chance to be tested again.

Frédéric Cassel, Rouleau Poire au Thé

 Friday, I wasn't too late to try a run to Ginza Mitsukoshi. I would have been fine not finding anything, since I needed some motivation to run Friday night despite planning to run from the morning on Saturday. As it happens, supply was surpassing demand and I didn't have any trouble getting the target cake as reward for the last cake-off win: Rouleau Poire au Thé. I don't have much respect for roll cake, but the simplicity is sometimes an advantage when the goal is to show off fruit, at least. I can't say the tea was obvious, but that's okay. Certainly the pear was clear and I was feeling mellow enough about both roll cake and fruit that I could enjoy this and call it excellent. Just to mention the run, I didn't try to kill myself getting there and walked it back for cake safety.

Viron, Baba

I was so behind on blogging, that I got behind on updating rankings and it wasn't Viron's turn. Lucky! I've had a baba from Viron at the Marunouchi restaurant that was great (as eat-in dessert), so I was optimistic about this take-out version, which I got from the Shibuya shop. (As it happens, it's not at the Marunouchi shop, as I found out after going there the long way, taking 17 km. Fortunately, another 7.5 km run across Yamanote was just what I wanted then.) I decided that this was also great, taking into consideration its presentation of a class. Super simple, of course, and not really anything special about it other than being perfect.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Chocolat Pralin over En Vedette's Mont-blanc

On my last morning off in the series, I did a cake-off, but since it was Tuesday, a couple cakes that I wanted would unavailable, so I finally did the third-round between two-time losers. That sounds bad, but these stayed among the great cakes despite losing, so I wasn't that worried about either of them. In particular, I remembered the Chocolat Pralin by Sadaharu Aoki as being definitely great, just matched against heavy hitters both times. It gets the win this time, which is not surprisingly. I really like chocolate and praline, and it's a good sized cake. It's weakness is perhaps it's simplicity, so would could get tired of it. In this case, I think I had tea and I had another cake to breakup things, really nice mont-blanc which gets a good amount of meringue in by sandwiching the cream wrapped in chestnut past between two disks. No disappointments with either.

Viron, Tarte au Citron

As a weekday destination, Viron in Shibuya is pretty reliable about not running out of cake, though actually I went in the morning. This was the second-to-last of a long run of mornings off to use up my expiring paid holidays. In response to a disappointing lemon tart/pie over the weekend, it was natural to hit Viron for the Tarte au Citron. This seems so traditional for them that's surprising that I haven't had it before, though that's probably because tarts were low on my priority list. This has meringue on top, naturally, and is excellent, thankfully. 

Kouhiichakan Shuu, Marron Chocolat

Spent the day hitting neighborhood shops around Harujuku. Only one really counts, so I'm leading with that one, Kouhii Chakan Shuu. I've visited one of their "Natural Cake" shop, but they have a different line-up. This time I ate in (since no smoking now), though they do takeout. I had Marron Chocolat, which is a seasonal cake. It's on the sweet side, so it would be better with a drink, which is what this is for, after all. It's comparable to the other coffee salon I know and at least as a first cake, I can say it was excellent.

Other cakes were from shops that don't deserve being marked as cake shops for my running map (and were cheap). One was Brook's, where I got the Basque Cheesecake. This is my first time with this kind of cheesecake and I can't say I get it. It was okay.

The other was the new shop in the Aoyama Grand Hotel, The City Bakery. I went with the Lemon Pie (if that's the correct name) which is their lemon tart. This also was just okay, not very lemony, which is the only thing it had to work with.

Occitanial, Chocolat Orange

As I swung back west after hitting Haru, I stopped at another shop I had seen on TV, Occitanial in Nihonbashi-Kakigara-chou, by the entrance to Suitenguumae Sta. (in the long name district, apparently). I think there were three staff, a closed eating space and no other customers. I went with Chocolat Orange. It's pretty, but supper mild. I'm reminded of Dalloyau, and old shop. As I said about Haru, I'll get around to a second cake at some point, since I'm not in danger of getting enough better shops to push it down a category.

Haru: New York Cheesecake

Finally visiting new shops, after stopping at Éclat des Jours and getting a great pastry (sorry, rain, and I'm behind on cakes, so I'm giving up on chronicling pastries, but need more from EdJ), I hit nearby Haru in the same neighborhood. I saw them on television and new cheesecakes were his thing, but I expected more variety than I found. In the end, I just got the New York Cheesecake, which was definitely good, but not really worth going that far away. Still, just good will be enough for a second cake relatively soon from fine shops, though it will probably take at least a year to go through them all (since I'm not going to pause everything else while I do it, and the quite fine shops will need a fourth cake).

Cake-off: Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier over Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre

 Cake-off back on September 10th, I did a second-round cake-off between two new-comers: Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre and Frédéric Cassel's Framboisier. In a way, both are these are pretty basic and there were reasons to give the win to either for this tough matchup. On one hand, this is maybe the only great fruit tart, whereas Framboisier is one of three nearly identify FC cakes, differing only in the fruit. But in the end, I really like the pistachio cream that is the main component of the Framboisier, and there is a lot of it, so it gets the win. If this were based on cost performance, though, I'd probably have to give it to the tart.

Éclat des Jours, Tartelette Fraise

At the same time as getting a cake for a cake-off, following covid rules of minimizing shopping trips, I also topped up Éclat des Jours after their last cake-off win by getting Tartelette Fraise, despite some new tempting non-tart cakes, which I also hope to sample soon. This was the same base as the great blackberry tart, though the top is different, besides the strawberries. Though in general I'm not that into strawberries, I could really respect these ones. I could also respect the shop for using strawberries that were not perfectly red. Definitely excellent. Think I've had all their tarts now except some sort of mixed fruit one. I'll probably hold off on that one to get to new cakes in the lineup. 

Viron, Coloré Pistache

Went down to Viron the following Monday, the one in Shibuya, which generally has a better selection late at night. Actually, they had three new cakes, so I got one, Coloré Pistache, even if I wasn't sure that it was their turn to have a new cake. Despite the decoration, the inside accent fruit for the pistachio outside is cherry, which is a common pairing with pistachio, and yet I haven't been happy with it until this cake. This was excellent, so I'm glad I gave in to it. This was to last me for a few days, until I did an early cake-off on Thursday, and put Viron back in the running to keep it's superb shop slot against BE and another challenger.

Cake-off: Sadaharu Aoki's Marron Fruits Rouges over Toshi Yoroizuka's Cassis

The first cake-off of September was a newly returned cake to the Sadaharu Aoki's lineup, Marron Fruits Rouges, and the only great cake at Toshi Yoroizuka's right now, Cassis. I think both feature black currant, or at least I assume that's one of the read fruits in SA's cake, but it's not hard to tell them apparent. The Cassis of TY is pairing cassis with fig, which might be a good pairing for fig, but fig isn't the easiest fruit for sweets and wasn't working particularly well for me, whereas Chestnut is often paired with cassis for good reason, and the Marron Fruits Rouges wins easily.

Frédéric Cassel, Tarte Myrtille

Back on September 4, I visited Frédéric Cassel for a new cake. Two weeks the previous month they had special domestic blueberry cakes. Next, they had blueberries as the month's theme. This cake goes by simply Tarte Myrtille, and was excellent, as usual, and suitably different from the recent maybe more traditional limited domestic blueberry version. This is almond cream in the bottom and blueberry cream on tip, with crepe added for texture, I'll say.

Lenôtre, Tartelette orange

Due to EV's weak performance, Lenôtre got another chance to improve it's standing. Best bet seemed to be the Tartelette orange. Unfortunately, it's exactly what it looks like, a tart with a lot of raw orange on top. The base is hard with some custard. The ingredient if fine, but not a combination that's probably ever going to work for me. For course, I can say it's good, but so far their tarts have been their weakest items.  

Bien-être, Verrine Tropique

As one of three shops battling for the bottom slot of the superb shops, I visited Bien-être for cake. This is Verrine Tropique, but unlike other verrines I've had, there is no token sponge in there, so really it's a straight out glass dessert. It was good, with mango and passion fruit, obviously, but forces me to start creating different rankings for with and without verrines. So no more verrines from here based on the with verrine rank, but if they actually got another new cake, I could still get it. At the same time, I feel free to work on the other shops that do have cakes.

Jean-Paul Hévin, Matcha Marron

New month, so the verrines are gone (almost: their were still some coffee ones at the side on the 2nd), which I'm not sorry about. Lots a great cakes in the line-up, and an exceptional one that I wouldn't mind having again. Importantly, there is a completely new cake, Matcha Marron, so the second day I got that. Recalling that I've fallen off with the regular Matcha, I wasn't sure how this one was going to be for me. Don't think I've had a matcha-maron pairing before from anywhere, but it totally works. Probably the bitter chocolate mousse and biscuit at the bottom helps. As even my photography shows, the matcha part is extremely light, like chiboust. Nothing else to say about it except that it was a great cake, which I hope stays around for awhile. If I'm lucky, I'll find another great cake to have a cake-off with it (or another cake that's eluded me for years will reappear, but I've been touring their shops, and no such luck this month yet).

Sweets Paradise, Baked Chocolate

This is more a curiosity than useful, since the Sweets Paradis Harajuku shop, which would have been on the local running map with a slight expansion. I got this at the Shinjuku Stn. counter, which now also closed, I think, though they have a shop shown open on the other side of the station in Shinjuku 3, which technically is accessible from the tunnels entering in Shinjuku 4, though I'm certainly not intending to visit every place that is true for. This is, of course, is Baked Chocolate (or that's what my notes say; guess "Gateau Chocolat" would be too fancy). It's maybe the lightest of it's type I've ever had, but for 108 yen, I can say that it was good. Maybe I've spurge for something in the 200 yen range next time. 

Cake-off: Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre over Sadaharu Aoki's Tarte Caramel Salé

August 28, was lucky enough to get the same cake in the afternoon as I got the previous morning and did a cake-off with a cake I've been waiting a long time to reappear from Sadaharu Aoki, their caramel tart: Tarte Caramel Salé. However, as in the cake of many early "greats", this one really live up to my hope. It was certainly good, but it didn't give Éclat des Jours' Tartelette Mûre any kind of fight, though it gave me a chance to confirm that I think it is great.

Éclat des Jours, Tartelette Mûre

Thursday Aug 27 (when I took a half-day off), I went out to Éclat des Jours for a new cake. I don't think they had any new regular cakes, so I continued working through their tart lineup, which is relatively large compared to other shops. Hadn't seen a reason for it until this one, but maybe just because I'm nostalgic for blackberries, I found this to be great, perhaps the best fruit tart I've had so far. Of course, great fruit is not enough and I also appreciate the cream (I think there is custard underneath) and the fairly substantial tart base.  

In blogger news, the edit for labels has finally evolved back to something that looks like the original easy-to-use form. 

Nino Caffé, Torta al Cioccolato

Went with a backup from the old neighborhood running course on the way from Tokyo Midtown and picked up a first cake from Nino Caffé: Torta al Cioccolato. It's definitely good, and definitely different from French-style (higher sugar or more crystalline). 

 

Toshi Yoroizuka, Tarte Myrtille

Back on August 25th, so still no memory of the running, but I was certainly on foot, and it was Toshi Yoruizuka's turn for a new cake. It's blueberry season and I went with Tarte Myrtille. It was definitely good, but not act the same level as FC's, though that was special domestic berries, versus berries from where I'm not sure.

En Vedette, Tarte Pamplemousse

After a disappointing coffee shop cake after a long day of running around the north Omote-Sandou Stn. area, I went down to Shibuya to get Tarte Pamplemousse from En Vedette. Grapefruit is a tough sell for me, but I've exhausted the other options at En Vedette. Unfortunately, it remains a hard sell, though I'll allow that it was good.

Sunday August 23, I hit the Omote-Sandou Stn. north area hard, starting with getting cake from a coffee shop, Nikka Block Cafe. I had had an excellent sablé from there. On the negative side, no cake take-out, but no drink requirement, so I figured if the cake's good, I'll make it a cake site on the new neighborhood course map. Unfortunately, this cake hits back hard. It's not stale, and a certain amount of hardness is expected, but it didn't really work for me. Ok, but needs a lot of whipped cream.

In better news, I liked the sunflower seed macaron from Cooing, which is evidently Korean.

In other local sweets news, Streamer Coffee Company Harajuku had a nice cookie, whereas the basement cafe in Omotesando Hills was manufactured on the other side of the country and not so great. I also didn't appreciate the pound cake from Ratio&C bike shop. Finally, though they apparently used to sell Kobe Donuts, now they are into muffins from a company called Berry Wise. Actually, definitely good, though I don't usually do muffins. This one was macadamia nuts and chocolate, maybe.

Cake-off Viron's Gateau Chocolat over Rue de Passy's Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron

Second-to-last cake-off for August was a third-round competition between a great cake of this year, Rue de Passy's Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron, versus an old favorite, Viron's Gateau Chocolat. Both entered with one win and one loss. In fact, I found after the competition that Gateau Chocolat had gotten flagged for possible removal previously. But actually, while I'm still happy with both cakes as great cakes, I appreciated the chocolate purity of the Gateau Chocolat more, so it takes the win this time. Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron can finally take a rest for at least a little while, with two losses.

Paris S'éveille, Verrine Provençal

Third Friday of Auguest, I went down to Jiyuugaoka to visit Paris S'éveille again, this time not by bicycle, so I was able return with a reasonable similarity to what I bought. This was the last of the current new cakes, if one allows this kind of class dessert as cake. Note that it has meringue cubes on top, which is enough to make it at least as much cake as some non-glass desserts. The name is Verrine Provençal, but I can't hang onto the ingredients long enough, even have having already visit again once and looking. I'm thinking jasmine, but maybe just because that was in the JPH verrine last month. Regardless, this is definitely excellent, perhaps the best verrine I've had from anywhere. I'm looking forward to the next batch of new cakes, though this still continues into the first weekend of September, at least.

Noix de Beurre, Cheesecake

The other Noix de Beurre cake-for-two from three weekends back was the the Cheesecake, which was good, but plain, which is sort of their thing: the basic cakes with no surprises.

Noix de Beurre, Peach Tart

At Isetan, bought cake for two. I didn't have anything particular I needed, so I didn't choose. The main attraction was the seasonal Peach Tart, which is a whole peach compote (with honey and lemon) with custard inside on a tart base. It's certainly good. Not sure how focused the picture is, but other online pictures look similar, so it might just be the glossiness of the peach rather than the focus on the plastic. 

Frédéric Cassel, Framboisier Vanille

 The other cake I got three Sunday's ago from Frédéric Cassel was Framboisier Vanille, which had been my target during the previous week when I went to Ginza Mitsukoshi. Unfortunately, while good, vanilla is pretty weak as a flavor, so naturally then held back on the raspberries, which is fine, but the cake was still lighter than my preference.

Frédéric Cassel, Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille

Sunday the 16th, while busy, I had a window to run to Ginza and get cake, so I did. My target was a different cake, but I needed a pair and this was also new from the same shop, Frédéric Cassel. This was one of a couple cakes with domestic blueberries with a two week scheduled run, but I note that they must have liked blueberries, as they became September's theme. Anyway, obviously this is Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille. It's like their other theme mille-feuille, which are excellently made but don't vary so much and aren't my favorite type of mille-feuille (I don't like the gelatin in the middle, which I think also requires some sponge around it, which is just wrong for mille-feuille). I complain, but they tend to be excellent anyway. However, blueberry is maybe not the best choice, or I'm just getting too tired of these, as it was only good.

Domestic Blueberry Mille-Feuille

Rue de Passy, Éclair Caramel

From their last cafe-off win, I owed Rue de Passy another visit, so I was there August 14th and picked up their Éclair Caramel, which worked out well, since it was excellent.

Sun Fruits, 'Shikisai' Short

Went to Ginza Mitsukoshi a few weeks back trying to get a CF cake, but wasn't there. I could have waited a day and tried again but decided to finally go with a backup, shortcake from the Sun Fruits counter as a first cake. This went by the name 'Shikisai' Short, being just their seasonal shortcake. It was good, but maybe I need to know my fruits much more to appreciate cakes from these types of shops. Actually, this is pretty much the only cake, so even if it had been great, that would just mean I need to wait for the next seasonal cake.  

Cake-off: Rue de Passy's Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron over En Vedette's Mont-Blanc

Three cake-offs ago, I went by Rue de Passy for their Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron, which has no problem, and then stopped at the Shibuya Scramble  Square to get the Mont-Blanc from the En Vedette counter. Unfortunately, between the heat and road vibration, the soft middle of the mont-blanc sank. It wasn't that noticeable eating it, but I feel a little bad that I have to choose the Mille-Feuille Praliné Citron. Still, this is only a second-round cake-off, so even with two losses, The Mont-Blanc can still get a third round, just it seems to be available year round, so I don't want to rush it, to keep it available for seasonal opponents.